The rotary-driving of centrifuge arms requires the availability of large amounts of energy with extremely short response times when it is desired to produce significant accelerations, this in particular being the case with centrifuges whose rotary arm is equipped with a swinging basket in which a pilot is placed in order to be subjected to high accelerations and decelerations as part of the simulation of flight conditions in supersonic planes, such as fighter planes.
The rotary arm of such a test centrifuge is rotary-driven from a high-powered electric motor whose rotation speed is adjusted with the aid of an electronic rectifier/inverse rectifier type control circuit if the electric motor is a synchronous or asynchronous motor. Having regard to the high instantaneous powers required to obtain high levels of acceleration or sudden acceleration variations, it is essential to have available extremely high-power electric power supply sources of about one megawatt, which involves considerable costs by having to install special power supply lines able to direct such power levels to the use sites. Moreover, these special high-power electric power lines need to be specially protected against the risks of short circuits occuring or disturbances linked to the presence of high loads whose value quickly varies with high amplitudes.
The present invention seeks to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks and allows for the rotary-driving of a centrifuge arm with rapid rotation speed variations and high torques, without it being necessary to have special high-power electric power lines and without the rotary-driving of the centrifuge arm provoking disturbances in the electric power supply network.
The invention also seeks to offer a device for rotary-driving a centrifuge arm which provides improved safety as regards controlling the movements of the centrifuge arm, and devices suspended from this arm, such as a swinging basket intended to house a person subjected to acceleration and deceleration tests.